Mississippi Teacher Appraisal Rubric Analysis

“Assessment is at the heart of education” (edutopia). Educators use assessment to determine students’ strengths and weaknesses, gauge students’ comprehension, document students’ growth, determine grades, and to plan instruction. The goal of assessment is to make improvements. It is different from testing and evaluation, because tests measure a student’s knowledge or level of skill, and evaluations are the process of making judgments. Assessments document skills, knowledge, and attitudes (edutopia). There are two types of assessment: authentic and traditional. Authentic assessment is a technique that examines students’ abilities using real-world challenges that requires them to apply the skills they have previously learned. It is much more
MSTAR stands for Mississippi Teacher Appraisal Rubric. The rubric has five domains: planning, assessment, instruction, learning environment, and professional responsibilities. To earn the highest score, a teacher must be distinguished in each domain. A few of these distinguishing characteristics are being prepared, assessing his/her students, communicating effectively, setting expectations, managing the classroom, and staying professional. It would be to the teacher’s greatest advantage to look over this rubric before the school year. This will allow him/her to know how he/she must perform in order to be effective
Each state has it’s own set of frameworks for science, social studies, and physical education. The purpose of these standards is to prepare students with the knowledge and skills to be successful in college and the workforce (MDE). These standards clearly outline what is expected of the students. The purpose of the frameworks is to outline what students should learn and be able to do. They provide teachers with “the structure of planning and delivering instruction in a comprehensive and logical form” (MDE). Essentially, the frameworks and standards have the same purpose. They are just developed by different